The Propane Energy and Research Council (PERC) celebrated its second annual National Propane Day in early October. PERC believes that a diverse mix of power throughout American homes and businesses improves the quality of life and reduces Americans’ overall carbon footprint.
PERC is a founding sponsor of the 2024 Virtual Concept Home by Livabl. Tucker Perkins, president and CEO of PERC, spoke to Livabl about National Propane Day, propane sustainability, and PERC’s participation with the Virtual Concept Home.
National Propane Day was on October 7. Your quote to the media stated, “Energy for everyone ensuring resiliency, energy equity and reducing carbon emissions and communities throughout the nation.” What does energy equity look like to you?
To me, it’s arguably the foundation of this whole conversation. What it looks like to me is developing clean technologies that are accessible and affordable to everyone. So often, we see these solutions that people dream of that are perhaps way out in time. They are costly compared to traditional things, and they leave entirely behind those who are just struggling to make their rent payments, mortgage payments, or utility bill payments.
As we think about the home of the future, the business of the future, and the vehicle of the future, we take equity into account. There’s the fact that our solutions could be enjoyed and benefited by everyone. The clear essence of equity and justice would be that the solutions help the users and those around them.
So many people say, “We must electrify because these things are emission-free.” They’re not emission-free; the emissions are pushed upstream to the power plant. That’s where people probably live close to the power plant. They have no other choice where to live. And they are severely impacted by that decision.
We start the other way and think about how we can positively impact the lives of the broadest number of people because those are the solutions we’re trying to deliver. It manifests itself in housing quite simply by having smaller appliances that tend to be at least able to fit into homes with fewer square feet that are affordable and do their job very efficiently. In addition, your utility bills are also low.
Why is an event like National Propane Day important?
We love it for two reasons: We love to have a time where we think about the contributions that propane itself makes to millions of people who rely on it every day, whether that’s a homeowner, a farmer, a forklift operator or a ship that’s operating on propane. We love to celebrate its many uses and celebrate the users of propane.
A vital sidebar is recognizing the 100,000 people who toil daily in our industry. It gives us a chance to sit back and acknowledge their contributions, efforts, commitment, and excellent customer service while working in the snow, rain, and wind. So, it’s twofold. It gives us a chance to celebrate the users, and it provides us with an opportunity to acknowledge the hard-earned contributions of our employees.
How effective is using propane during the extreme weather we’ve been experiencing due to climate change?
I think that’s one of the best features of propane because we generally have storage at customer locations. We are certainly prepared to handle those temperature extremes, wind extremes, and even fires.
Each homeowner can customize their solutions using propane, and that’s one of the things you would consider. Perhaps you bury your tank; maybe you shield your tank. There are all kinds of things you can do to minimize your exposure.
Can you tell us about some of the innovative uses of propane in new home construction and how PERC is applying them to the Livabl Concept Home?
We spend our days thinking about the home of the future and trying to get as much of that in today. We believe that the house of the future will look a little different. Maybe it looks a little more like the Livabl Concept Home. It would be a multifuel home; it won’t be it won’t be a monofuel home.
We love discussing how to marry the advantages of low-carbon fuels like propane or natural gas with the benefits of electricity. Let’s take the Livabl home. Inside, we’re using propane to heat hot water. Arguably, the most efficient way to do it is the lowest footprint of any appliance. And another key feature is that we’re using gas cooking because that seems to be what chefs and great cooks prefer.
Inside and outside the home, we’ve included lots of fireplaces. There are outdoor living accouterments like grills, fire pits, and torches. We think about three things: Comfort, costs, both installed and operating, and we think about creating a desirable living space. I think one of the things we’re trying to do every day is create spaces that bring families together.
Where is propane headed in the future, particularly regarding sustainability?
How can you live your life with the lowest carbon footprint and the healthiest footprint? But beyond climate, let’s think about our own personal health, asthma, bronchitis, those kinds of things. How can you do it in a way that’s affordable and good for the environment, good for your community in terms of their health?
I think we’ll continue to deliver highly efficient appliances with a small footprint that do the job wonderfully and are cost-effective. And then, lastly, I think you’ll see us continue to innovate within propane itself. Today, conventional low-carbon propane is cleaner than the grid almost everywhere across this country.
Ultimately, there will be renewable propane, zero carbon, or negative carbon propane solutions in those appliances from now to the point where we’re all using renewable propane. We’ll be using blends of conventional and renewable propane, which will always offer the lowest carbon footprint.
As we particularly think about the dual fuel solutions you see in the Virtual Concept Home, we know that they generally offer the best combination of carbon, operating costs, comfort, and initial cost. We’re excited to be on the cutting edge of all those innovations.
